Modernism and the Ideology of History: Literature, Politics, and the Past Book

Modernism focuses on five poets and writers: Ford Madox Ford; WB Yeats; Thomas Hulme; Ezra Pound and DH Lawrence whose writing, during the first four decades of the 20th century led them to be considered major modernists and the book covers their individual approaches to the issues of the day including progress, history, aesthetics, non-Western cultures and the political issues of the day. While the research is thorough, it would appear as if Williams has constructed a giant table with a column for each of the five writers, a row for each topics and filled in each cell with that writer's approach to or views on that topic, then turned it into a book. While the content is interesting, the writing style is strained, almost straightjacketed.